MEET MELIA ROSS, FARMERS MARKET BLOGGER

Meet Melia Ross, Farmers Market Blogger

I guess you could say my infatuation with nature began with a fuchsia.

As a child, I spent countless hours in my grandfather’s greenhouse. When he wasn’t looking, my sister and I would pop the bloom right before it was about to open. It would make the most intriguing sound. Inevitably, he would catch us, give us stern look and we knew it was time to find something else to entertain our curiosity.

I still remember the earthy smell of potting soil on hot summer days when hours were measured in flats of plants instead of minutes. My grandfather could grow anything and he did. Impatiens. Geraniums. Poinsettias. Each time he placed a small seed into the soil, observed its growth and then eventually witnessed the creation he produced be sold, it brought him so much joy. By watching him, I believe he instilled within me my first desire to explore the natural world even if it had to cost him a few blooms on his fuchsia plants.

For me, almost every time I walk into the Minnetrista Farmers Market, so many cherished memories of the greenhouse come flooding back. There’s just something about buying produce from someone who has had their hands on it from pasture to plate. I believe when you are able to converse with the person who planted the seed, watered and cared for the crop, it connects you to that person and the world around you on so many levels.

Sometimes I buy vegetables or meat to grill. Sometimes its a basket of fruit to make a fresh cobbler. Other times its a unique plant to add to my garden. I find myself starting to form a friendship with the person whose food will later satisfy my family’s appetite. It allows me an opportunity to have hundreds of recipes and cooking and gardening tips all in one place. Besides an opportunity to reminisce, I truly enjoy navigating through the crowd and learning a little more about my own community through the people I meet each week.

Melia Ross is a telecommunications sales rep by day, but her true passion is creating new things whether that's through her garden, her cooking or the jewelry she designs.